The Lost Planet

Chapter Five: Missing

Teal'c is sitting in a chair telling a group of orphan children his favorite story. "Luke Skywalker was lying in the snow. While sitting there, he had a vision of his old mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"Hello, children," a voice interrupts.

"You were one of the men who attacked Cloud Strife earlier today!" Teal'c accuses.

"Guilty as charged," he admits. "My name's Yazoo and I'm taking these children."

"You are not!" Teal'c shouts, lunging at Yazoo. Yazoo kicks Teal'c but, he's able to dodge. Teal'c punches but, is blocked.

The fight lasts several minutes. Eventually, Yazoo leaps over Teal'c and slashes his back. Teal'c keeps fighting through the loss of blood. After several more minutes, Teal'c passes out from blood loss.

"I can cure you of your 'stigma," Yazoo promises the children. "Come with me." He walks out with the children following. He gets into a truck as the children climb into the back.

A few minutes later, Teal'c regains consciousness. He turns on his radio. "The... children..." he groans before passing out again.

"Teal'c!" Mitchell's voice comes out of the radio. "Teal'c, come in!" A second later, Teal'c disappears in a flash of blue light.

The next thing Teal'c knows, he's looking up at Daniel. "The children!" he yells. "They have taken the children!"

"Who, Teal'c?" Daniel asks. "Who took them?"

"The same men we fought against alongside Cloud Strife near Edge," Teal'c answers. "My wounds were fatal; how is it that I am still alive?"

"I was able to cure you with materia."

"How do you feel, Teal'c?" Colonel Davidson asks.

"I feel well, Colonel Davidson."

"Can you beam us back down?" Daniel asks.

"Sure thing."

When they beam back down, Mitchell asks, "what happened, big guy?"

Teal'c tells them how the children were captured.

"What about Tifa and Barret?" Cloud asks.

"Barret Wallace grew weary of my story and went shopping for food for the children," Teal'c answers. "And Tifa Lockhart took Marlene Wallace to a church."

Cloud tries calling Tifa with his phone. "She's not answering. I know the church she went to," Cloud tells them. "We should head there now."

"Let's go," Mitchell orders.

They arrive at the church and discover Tifa laying unconscious in a bed of flowers. Cloud rushes to her. The rest follow. Daniel pulls his pistol out and cures Tifa.

"Marlene!" Tifa shouts when she wakes up. "Where's Marlene?"

"She is not here, Tifa Lockhart," Teal'c answers.

"Teal'c? Why aren't you with the orphans?" Teal'c explains the attack. "We have to go after them!"

"We have to know where they are, first," Mitchell points out.

"Why do you have your pistol drawn?" Tifa asks Daniel.

"Oh!" he shouts and turns the pistol so she can see the materia inside. "It's where I had my cure materia." She nods. "Perhaps introductions are in order?" She nods again. Everybody introduces themselves to everybody who doesn't know them yet.

After the introductions, Mitchell gets an idea. "Odyssey, come in," he says into his radio.

"We read you, Mitchell."

"Somebody just abducted a bunch of kids, can you do a scan for life-signs outside of major cities?"

"How many?"

"There were 15 kids staying at the orphanage," Tifa answers.

"Catch that, Odyssey?" Mitchell asks.

"Are you telling me somebody abducted a group of ORPHANS?" Davidson screams.

"Affirmative, Odyssey."

"We'll do the scans; we'll radio if we find anything!"

"Thank you, Odyssey. Mitchell out."

The group heads back to the orphanage. They get there at the same time as Barret. "What the hell happened here?" he demands. Teal'c explains, again, what happened. "Is Marlene safe?"

"I'm sorry, Barret," Tifa answers. "One of the remnants got her."

"Let's get those punks!" Barret yells.

"We will as soon as we find them," Cloud answers.

"Cloud," Tifa begins, "can I talk to you upstairs?" Cloud nods and they head up.

After they leave, Barret is introduced to the rest of SG-1. "Could they have gone to the Northern Crater?" Vincent asks.

"No way!" Barret answers. "The kids'd freeze to death before they made halfway there!"

"Wutai?"

Yuffie shakes her head. "We have kids missing, too. Why take them from there just to bring them all back?"

"Nanaki would have contacted us if they were seen around Cosmo Canyon," Vincent points out.

"Kalm?" Cid asks.

"Too small. Rocket Town?" Barret asks.

Suddenly, Mitchell's radio comes to life. "SG-1," Rufus' voice is heard, "come in."

"This is Mitchell; I read you, Mister President."

"We have a lead on the children," Rufus says.

"Oh, yeah!" Barret yells. "Where are they?"

"They're in the Lost City, Mister Wallace."

"Thank you, Mister President," Mitchell answers. "We'll head over there now."

"Would you like backup?" Barret crosses his arms and shakes his head.

"No, thank you, sir. We can handle it on our own."

"Very well, Rufus out."

"SG-1," the radio switches voices, "this is Odyssey."

"Go ahead," Mitchell answers.

"Is the Lost City where the 'Gate was found?"

"Yes," Vincent answers.

"We can confirm 30 life-signs within 4 clicks of the 'Gate."

"The kids are there!" Barret yells.

"Odyssey," Mitchell begins, "can you beam us over?"

"Sorry, Mitchell," Davidson answers, "the trees are too close to safely beam down."

"Can you beam the kids up?"

"No way to differentiate between the kids and the abductors. We'd have to do it one at a time to be safe and that would tip them off."

"Acknowledged, Odyssey," Mitchell answers. "Mitchell out." He turns to Barret. "Can you let Cloud know we found the kids."

"No way in hell!" Barret answers. "I ain't gettin' between those two again!"

"Forget it!" Cid supplies. "They're in the middle of a lover's spat by now. I'd rather face Sephiroth again but all by myself then walk in on that!"

Yuffie shakes her head and crosser her arms.

"No," Vincent answers before he's asked.

"Which room's theirs?" Mitchell asks, frustrated.

"Maybe something will happen that can never unhappen!" Tifa yells. Before she or Cloud can say anything else, a knock is heard on their door. "Come in!"

Mitchell pokes his head in. "Sorry to interrupt but, we just got a lead on the kids."

"Where are they?" Cloud asks.

"Not far from where we met," Mitchell jokes. "They're in the Lost City."

"Go," Cloud tells him. "I want to talk to Rufus again. Find out more about what he knows."

"You can do that over the radio, Cloud," Mitchell points out. Instead of answering, Cloud gets up and walks past Mitchell.

Mitchell's about to stop him when Tifa says in frustration, "let him go! If he wants to give up everything he has now because of a memory, why should we stop him?"

Mitchell lets out a sigh, "whatever! The rest of us are going to get the kids back. Do you want to join us?"

"I'll stay here in case any of the kids managed to escape," Tifa answers.

Mitchell nods. "You and Barret have each others numbers, right?" Tifa nods. Mitchell leaves.

To Be Continued...

A/N: Bad news everybody, my Blu-Ray drive is acting up on my computer. That means that I can't watch Advent Children Complete. THAT means the next chapter is going to be delayed a few days.